Racial focus of federal alcohol inquiry questioned

Northern Territory social service groups have questioned the racial focus of a federal inquiry into the harmful use of alcohol in Indigenous communities.

The House of Representatives standing committee on indigenous affairs has heard evidence from the Council for Aboriginal Alcohol programs and the NT Council of Social Services (NTCOSS) in Darwin.

Both groups say the inquiry, which has already conducted hearings in Tennant Creek and Alice Springs, should be widened to look at the detrimental impacts of alcohol in non-indigenous communities.

NTCOSS executive director Wendy Morton said alcohol-related deaths in the Territory are three times higher than the national average.

She says the law and order focus on Aboriginal people with alcohol issues reinforces the chasm between Indigenous and non-indigenous communities.

Committee chairwoman and liberal MP Dr Sharman Stone says she takes the comments on board but says the inquiry needs to focus on worsening alcoholism in Aboriginal communities.

In Tennant Creek earlier this week, a Territory Aboriginal health organisation urged the inquiry to examine the living conditions which fuel alcohol abuse.

Anyinginyi Health spokesman Trevor Sanders told the committee of the terrible living conditions of Aboriginal people in the town, about 1,000 kilometres south of Darwin.

"There is a real need for reform in the supply and availability of alcohol and how alcohol is managed but we have also got to look at the causes of why we get such high levels of drinking, and we believe housing is one of those causes," he said.

"With overcrowded housing ... you throw in the social ill around it.

"That environment tends to make health care providers a bit like the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff."